This Week In Quotes: Jan 25 – Jan 31

I don’t do the gay guys man. I don’t do that. No, we don’t got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do. Can’t be with that sweet stuff. Nah…can’t be…in the locker room man. Nah. — 49ers CB Chris Culliver

Well, let’s start with a specific question on a vote, regarding designating the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. You recall, because you were there, there were 22 senators who voted against that. The effort against it – the main point made on the floor of the Senate came from Senator Jim Webb. And his point was we have never, ever designated a part of a legitimate government, a state – and when I say “legitimate,” that doesn’t mean we agree with Iran, but it is a member of the United Nations. Almost all of our allies have embassies in Iran. So that’s why I note – an elected, legitimate government, whether we agree or not. But we have never made any part of a legitimate, independent government, designated them or made part – made them part of a terrorist organization. We’ve just – we’ve never done that. — Chuck Hagel

It is a depressing characteristic of government today to loudly enact legislation and impose regulations of little utility, while neglecting to address the root causes of truly serious problems. — Victor Davis Hanson

With news that the economy “unexpectedly” contracted in the last quarter of 2012, one does not have to be an economist to sense that whatever we have been doing for the last four years is not working and we may not see the long-promised “summer of recovery.” The naturally robust recoveries that usually follow deep recessions haven’t happened. With astronomical new borrowing, we now find ourselves in the same predicament as the proverbial end-stage addict who cannot continue with his lethal habit or survive without his toxic infusions. In the last four years, we haven’t had a budget without a $1 trillion deficit; we have added over $5 trillion in new debt. And yet for all such stimulatory dope, we have not witnessed a single month of unemployment lower than 7.8 percent–in a country in which well under 6 percent unemployment as recently as 2004 was derided as a “jobless recovery,” and in which a prior administration in eight years did not have a single month with an unemployment rate higher than every month of the present administration. Is the new normal about 8 percent unemployment, GDP growth of about 0 to 1 percent, and budget deficits at $1 trillion? — Victor Davis Hanson

Any immigration system that can be infiltrated by a dishwasher or landscaper can also be infiltrated by a terrorist or cartel assassin. — Mark Krikorian

After every tragedy, legislation gets rushed through that’s typically just a bunch of stuff that various folks had long wanted all along, but couldn’t pass before. Then it’s hustled through as a “solution” to the tragedy, even though close inspection usually reveals that the changes wouldn’t have prevented the tragedy, and don’t even have much to do with it. The goal, thus, is to prevent close inspection through a combination of heavy-handed legislative techniques and bullying rhetoric: If you don’t want to pass our bill without reading it, you must hate the children. — Glenn Reynolds

Yes, there will be fewer whites and more minorities in the future, and Republicans will have to adjust. But the situation is more complicated than that. Start with the obvious: If demographics were determinative, then Republicans shouldn’t have gained 63 seats in the House of Representatives in 2010–the largest midterm shift since 1938–while also taking 30 governorships. — Karl Rove

If John Boehner started preaching the virtues of socialism tomorrow morning, the entire planet would turn capitalist by noon. Boehner is a walking, talking charisma vortex. When he’s not speaking or crying, he has the look of a man about to apologize. And Mitch McConnell sounds like Foghorn Leghorn. They may be decent men, but Boehner and McConnell are the leaders of and chief communicators for the Republican Party. Why? — Yates Walker

Our leaders whine about the left and often offer critiques, but that’s not conservatism. That’s how losers lose. If you believe in something, you don’t merely defend it. You champion its virtues. You promote it. You make a case for it. You hope – for lack of a better word – to sell it. Politics, if nothing else, is salesmanship. — Yates Walker